Recently, the NAND Flash market has seen significant improvements, especially the surge in demand in the enterprise-level solid-state drive (eSSD) sector, which is expected to cause NAND Flash supply to be tight and push prices to rise, and this agg...
Recently, the NAND Flash market has seen significant improvements, especially the surge in demand in the enterprise-level solid-state drive (eSSD) sector, which is expected to cause NAND Flash supply to be tight and push prices to rise, and this aggressive trend may continue until 2026.
According to the latest survey by Joe Moore, the demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-based facility construction and hard drive (HDD) storage in ultra-large data centers is jointly driving the sales of enterprise-level SSDs to grow significantly. The demand for this stock has exceeded the standard of the past and has a large order volume, and is clearly shifting from the PC and smartphone markets. Among them, it is worth noting that data center storage is still mainly traditional hard drives (HDDs), accounting for 85-90%, while SSDs account for only 10-15%. Analysis points out that even if only 1 percent of the storage combination is transferred from HDD to SSD, it will have a significant impact on the SSD market. This tiny transformation indicates the huge growth potential of the SSD market in the future.
For the above reasons, the supply of NAND Flash is under pressure, coupled with the limitations in capital expenditures and the technical conversion of the wafer factory, the impact is even stronger. Specifically, Samsung's crystalline factory in Xi'an is transforming from 128-layer stacking technology to 236-layer stacking technology, which has led to a significant reduction of 40% between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, which is to drop from 200,000 wafers per month to 120,000 wafers. In addition, the new equipment restrictions imposed by the US Department of Commerce on Korean memory suppliers may also lead to potential supply disruptions, further increasing the durability of supply and demand imbalances.
Joe Moore now believes that NAND Flash's pricing power has turned into a decisive positive in the fourth quarter. Prices for all types of NAND Flash products are expected to rise in the fourth quarter, and this aggressive pricing trend is likely to continue until 2026. This contrasts with the perception that some investors and analysts had previously expected a price decline. If Joe Moore predicts all NAND Flash applications to rise in price in December, this will represent a market generally expected NAND Flash will begin to welcome a significant upswing space.
For related stocks, although SanDisk has insufficient exposure in the enterprise SSD market in the short term, the accelerated promotion of its BICS 8 technology will enable it to gain a greater upward space in 2026. In addition, SanDisk also issued a notice letter to customers, stating that the demand for flash memory products has grown strongly due to the promotion of artificial intelligence applications and the growing storage needs of data centers, clients and mobile fields. To ensure high-performance flash memory solutions and support continuous innovative investment, SanDisk is making price adjustments to the entire flash memory product portfolio.
SanDisk stated in the notice that from now on, all product prices for channel customers and consumer customers will increase by more than 10%. These adjustments are only for new quotes and orders, not for existing commitments, and we will continue to conduct regular price reviews and may make more adjustments in the next few quarters. In this regard, analysts maintained their "buy-in" investment ratings for SanDisk and set a top $70 target on the street.
As for this, Micron will also benefit from the strong trend of rising NAND Flash prices, but its driving force for profit growth is still in the DRAM market. In addition, SanDisk's partner Kioxia, market analyst, gave investment evaluations to "buy in". This positive news bonus also caused SanDisk and Kioxia to rise in stock prices.
From the overall perspective, the NAND Flash market is ushering in the recovery of strong under the dual promotion of AI development and enterprise storage needs. Although supply is limited, the trend of rising prices has been established, bringing positive market prospects to relevant memory manufacturers.
